I am the Founder and CEO of Little Pim language learning for kids company. We help young children all over the world learn their first 360 words in a second language. Language teaching is in my genes, as my father was Dr. Paul Pimsleur, creator of the best-selling Pimsleur Method. I serve on the board of Entrepreneurs' Organization, advise the nonprofit Global Language Project, and prepare women CEOs to raise capital through my Double Digit Academy (doubledigitacademy.com). My motto is "Fortes Fortuna Juvat" - Fortune Favors the Brave. Fortune has smiled on me with two energetic and awesome boys under the age of ten. I live in New York City, where I was also raised.

Making Apps That Make Money

Multi-platform is the new normal in the kids media world, but monetizing the thousands of apps being produced each day is another story. After all, there’s been ample coverage of once-hot app companies going down in flames. A recent story in the Atlantic cautioned against investing in even the most profitable app makers, suggesting companies like Candy Crush maker King Digital Entertainment, which took in $568 million in profit last year, may not prove profitable in the long haul.

At my company (Little Pim language learning for kids) we need to make apps because they are part of mix of where kids as young as 18 months discover content. Not being there would be declining to attend the birthday party of the most popular kid in the class. But how do you come up with an app strategy that won’t candy crush your profits?

I have been wary of joining what seems to me like the “race to the bottom,” in which apps are offered at $.99- $1.99 prices and never have a prayer of making a profit. We’ve made eight apps over the last two years with five different developers and have come to realize it’s about setting goals, partnering, getting press and moving quickly.

Here are the key lessons we learned:

1. Identify the goal of your app first. Ask yourself what the end game is. Is the app’s purpose is to pull in new users/customers, to make money, or are to enhance the value proposition of your core product? You usually can’t do all three. If your goal is mainly to get new eyeballs you might want to partner with a developer. They will take a cut of the revenue but you’ll also split the costs and won’t be going it alone in the marketing phase.

2. Beware of an app that cannibalizes your core product. At Little Pim, we knew we needed to keep the prices for our core products – videos available in the iTunes Movies section for $9.95 – solid. Our videos teach young kids languages like Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese via a downloadable series, and we didn’t want to undercut our price point. Giving away the product we’d invested a great deal in developing didn’t make economic sense for our company – and in fact would prove disastrous, as it has for other companies. All of our apps were conceived as inexpensive “Vocabulary Booster Apps” that add value to our main products.

3. Make apps that bolster marketing. Compared to getting other kinds of digital products to market, developing an app can be the less pricey proposition. You can expand your digital footprint and meet kids and parents where they are looking for content, while also benefiting from the PR bounce. A new app is something fresh to catch the eye of bloggers and journalists covering your market. If you get a lot of attention you could wind up featured in AppleApple’s Top 10 Apps in iTunes, the holy grail of apps.

4. Build in flexibility. As you plan your digital strategy, make sure factor in the inevitable need to pivot to meet the market where it is and make the most of it. Don’t lock yourself in or put all your digital eggs in one basket. It’s a rapidly changing landscape, and you need to be ready to roll with it.

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